Growing Plymouth parish watches new church rise

St. Bonaventure Catholic Church expects to celebrate the first Mass in a new worship space in December. the $7.5 million project will almost double the sanctuary’s capacity.

By Lane Lambert

The Patriot Ledger, Quincy, MA

By Lane Lambert

Posted May. 2, 2013 at 12:01 AM
Updated May 2, 2013 at 2:07 AM

By Lane Lambert

Posted May. 2, 2013 at 12:01 AM
Updated May 2, 2013 at 2:07 AM

PLYMOUTH

» Social News

The first Mass in St. Bonaventure Catholic Church’s future worship space is still at least seven months away, but the new building is taking shape.

Passers-by on Route 3A in Manomet can now see the steel skeleton of the building and what will be a 71-foot-high bell tower. By the end of May, the structure’s walls are expected to be in place.

Susan Healey, the parish’s administrative assistant, said the $7.5 million project continues to be on track for a dedication and blessing in early December.

“It’s going according to the deadline,” she said.

At a time when the Boston archdiocese has closed and merged scores of parishes – and is now grouping most of its 288 active parishes into collaboratives – St. Bonaventure needs a bigger worship space for its 3,000 households and 11,000 adult and child parishioners.

The parish is one of only three on the South Shore that hasn’t been grouped into a collaborative. (The other two are St. Agatha’s in Milton and Quincy, and St. Mary of the Nativity in Milton.) The Rev. Kenneth Overbeck is St. Bonaventure’s pastor.

The new, 10,500-square-foot church will seat almost 1,000 people, almost twice as many as the existing sanctuary can hold. The current church, built in 1950, will be converted into a parish hall.

The project contractor is A.P. Whitaker and Sons of West Bridgewater.

The project will be paid for with a $3.2 million archdiocese loan, a parish capital campaign, the 2012 sale of the parish’s St. Catherine chapel at White Horse Beach, and the unfinished sale of a 9-acre tract of property in nearby Bourne.

Healey said all the pews and worship elements in the new sanctuary will be new, including the altar fixtures and baptismal font. She said a liturgical arts committee has begun planning and designing the new worship space.